Features VINTAGE SPRINT CAR PIC THREAD, 1965 and older only please.

1977 Hamburg NY USAC star Tom Bigelow! enjoy!

 

and 34 years later at Salem with Mac Miller and The Doc on each side- in case he starts to fall over
photo by Randall Cook

 

HA! I worked for Sherman during those years and put in a lot of hours on that car. That was the original Armstrong sprint car. It was driven at various times by Rich Vogler, Bigelow, Greg Leffler, Chuck Gurney, Chris Cumberworth
and at the end of 1979, the car was destroyed in a turn 4 crash at Winchester, critically injuring Butch Wilkerson.

 

Mac. The salt car looks awesome! One of these days I'm going to build one those.

Is the nose on that one shaped a little different or maybe it is leaned forward a little? Looks a little more aero than normal.

 

Good eye, Neil, Yes, several changes have made to the nose. I am very paranoid about nose lift. The bottom surface of the Watson nose curves upward at the front, allowing air to pack up, lifting the nose. On this car I tilted the nose down as far as i could to keep the bottom surface as parallel to the ground as possible...... I'm still paranoid about it.....

mac miller in INDY

 

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Many of the photos of the roadsters, on the straightaway, at Indy show them running "nose up". Bob Harkey and Parnelli told me that they tapped the brake going into turn 1 and 3 to settle the nose back down to the track before "turning in".
Another amazing dynamic about these cars was the difference in weight and weight distribution between a full fuel load and empty. the cars carried about 70 gallons of fuel(approx 450 lb), cantilevered behind the rear axle.
Can you imagine the handling changes during a fuel run????

mac miller in INDY

 

Probably not much interest but I'm always curious as to how the old Indy cars lived out their days. Came across this on the IdeeHo vintage site and thought I'd pass it along. I don't see where Russo drove the Bardahl car in 61 as the article states but he did in 59/60 so I suspect its just a typo. I gotta believe keeping 6 strombergs dialed in must have been ...well "challenging"

 

If you enlarge this photo, check out how far down the windscreen goes. Any farther and it would melt on the exhaust.

 

^^^^one of the most beautiful roadsters ever built.

 

Shhhh, that's a speed secret. Works like a spinnaker sail.

 

Another pic, from the Idaho site, of the ex-Bardahl car dressed in its supermod clothes and sporting some serious rf meat and a industrial strength exhaust. Appears to have a muffler too, didn't see that much 'back in the day'

 

Here are two more photos of the Gerhardt Indy roadster as a supermodified driven and owned by Mel Andrus. In the second photo Mel in the 22 and the Pink Lady on the out side is out in my shop!

 

Sent this link to some friends and since all of you are my friends too, I thought I'd better put this on here. The Pikes Peak Hill Climb wasn't without incident again this year. Go to this link and scroll down for the two videos. The first is only 6 seconds long - but will leave a huge impact (just like it did on this guy!). The second is longer and even more dramatic. Only minor injuries (whatever the hell that means) so it's ok to watch. Turn up the volume: http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motora...peak-climb-amid-heart-stopping-130045334.html

 

I read on Indiana Open Wheel that Josh Shaw won a feature at Lawrenceburg in the Hudson Hornet?????

 

Josh,E Bay 251128243606 &251128236881 May interest you , Speedie.

 

I think Speedie meant 251128243603; ...606 sends you to a shoe site in Germany.
Unless Speedie is privvy to a fetish Josh has that the rest of us don't know about...

 

Years back, a popular "story" around the hillclimb crowd was when Slim Roberts ran the Conze Sprint/midget off the road back in 62. Though he got a little discombobulated there didn't appear to be anything life threatening. Anyways, they haul him off to the hospital and they fix him up and cut him loose. For some reason or another they missed seeing on the x-rays, before he left, he actually had a broken neck. By then he was long gone and nobody knew where he went. So they send people out to find him and eventually he turns up at the nearest bar knocking back some liquid "Dr.feel good." Probably more myth than fact I suspect.

 

Shark Cars is a playful idea dovetailing the Discovery Channel's Shark Week (Aug., 12 - 19th) and we're celebrating sixty years of car protruding performance of American design of the fifties:

http://www.carofthecentury.com/shark_cars.htm

 

Not only are the drivers a little nuts, but the stupid spectators are just plain fools. There is plenty of high ground that is safer to watch from. There's nothing soft on a car going into the crowd, and the run-off at Pike's Peak is made up entirely of large rocks. Evidently common sense also gets rarer and rarer as the altitude thins. Gary

 

Gotta disagree, common sense would tell you never leave your house, hell, you might trip and break your neck going out to the mail box. PP is one of the few bastions left that hasn't, yet, been totally fucked up by our 'Big Brother' nanny state we're forced to live in nowdays that dictates how we need to live our lives (we, of course, are waaay to stupid to know whats good for us) . Nobody is twisting anybodys arm to either race or spectate. "Ya pays yer money-ya takes yer chances"!

 

Like Smokey said, Rootie, "If you wanna be safe, stay in the garage. But you could drop a hammer on your foot back there."

 

Yep, common sense ain't that common anymore. But, standing on the outside of a turn watching them come down the straight directly at you has always been stupid.

 

I'm sure I'm among a small minority nowdays, but I still believe we have the God given right to be just as stupid as we choose to be, as long as we aren't hurting anyone else. Just saying.

 

Rootie, I'm only worried about the spectators. The driver's know what the risks are, or are good at rationalizing themselves into the it's all in fun zone. You won't catch me standing at the barrier next to the speed traps when Force goes by, either. Gary

 

I'm with you Rootie.

 

Wow. This thread has sucked up all of my spare time for the past two weeks. I have read every page like a thriller that just captures you. Thank you one and all for your contributions. I have been a fan all my life. My first race was a sprint car race at IRP. I think it was the first time a car left the track for the parking lot there. Also it was Merle's first race back after losing his arm. Keep it coming.

 

And speaking of Merle B. ....I think he may have hit the coffee pot a little hard that morning :

 

barstowpo,
Was that Charlie Masters that got put out of the park between 1 and 2 driving the Jones orange #33? If so there is a cute story that goes with it. Charlie had not been married very long. When they got him out of the car and was headed back to the pits the guy with him said his wife was yelling for him. Charlie told him to act like they did not hear her because he was going to catch hell. He had told her driving race cars was safe. He did not drive to much longer and is still married.